The use of magnesium salts for dietary supplementation is well known. Unfortunately, the beneficial effects derived from dietary magnesium supplementation have too often been achieved at the expense of other undesirable side effects such as acute diarrhea. Another disadvantage of the commercially available dietary magnesium supplements has been the relatively large tablet size required to obtain the desired magnesium dosage.
The use of potassium supplements such as potassium chloride for the treatment of patients with hypokalemia is also well known. Here again, however, problems have been encountered with associated side effects such as arrhythmia and diarrhea.
Recently, it has been learned that some of these undesirable side effects can be better controlled by administering potassium in combination with magnesium citrate. Nevertheless, due to the relatively low densities of the commercially available magnesium citrate preparations, the large tablet sizes required to obtain a desirable dosage remain a problem.
In view of the medically recognized need for supplementing dietary potassium and magnesium under certain circumstances, and in view of recently published data demonstrating the improved uptake and bioavailability of these minerals when administered in combination with citrate, a method is therefore needed for supplementing dietary potassium, magnesium and citrate in such manner that undesirably large tablet sizes or numbers of tablets are required in order to attain a desired dosage.